Page 134 of Secret Shifters Next Door

I kissed her hand. “It sure does.”

The moment was broken by April’s phone ringing. “Ugh, it’s Larry. I need to take this.”

I nodded. “That’s fine.” With my enhanced hearing, I could make out both sides of the conversation.

“Hey, Larry.”

“April. I wanted to check in. That slimy son of a bitch had his lawyers call me. Said you verbally harassed him on the phone.”

April rolled her eyes. “Tell his management team that he violated the no-contact order. He deserved to get cussed out after everything he’s done. Instead of bitching about his feelings being hurt, he needs to work on paying me my money back.”

“I’m on it. I wanted to let you know what was going on, but we’re on it. If that asshole calls you again, just ignore it and block the number.”

“Will do, Larry. Thanks for the heads-up.” April hung up and smiled apologetically. “Sorry about that. This is part of the chaos I don’t like.”

“I get it. I dealt with some of the same stuff. My manager would call with all kinds of crazy things. Then I had multiple women who tried to con me into giving them money by saying I got them pregnant and that they needed child support.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Shifters and humans can’t procreate, and none of those women were my mate. The odds of those kids being mine are somewhere between negative-one and zero.”

April chuckled. “I’m glad we can bond over our shared agony of the celebrity lifestyle. Do you miss it at all?”

“I don’t, no. I love baseball. Playing games in Yankee stadium and standing at the plate while a hall-of-famer throws a curveball at you? Nothing beats that. But I didn’t enjoy the celebrity aspect. Now I prefer teaching the game to children. Kids like Aiden. I loved the sport, and the money I made helped set me up. I saved most of it and that money went a long wayin building the security firm. Without that time in the majors, I don’t know where I’d be now. Probably selling insurance or something.”

April sipped at her orange juice. “I’m glad you were able to find happiness outside the sport. After your injury, it must have…” She frowned deeply and looked at me. “Wait. Aren’t you like a magical beast? How did a knee injury cause you to retire? Aren’t you, like, superhuman?”

I sighed. “Yeah. I was fully healed in a few weeks. It was a devastating injury, even for a shifter. That’s why it took me so long to get better, relatively speaking. In the first couple of days after the accident, my team and my manager sent me to every specialist in the country. Every doctor and physical therapist said I’d walk with a limp the rest of my life. It would have been too difficult to explain my miraculous recovery. There’d be questions, and the doctors would have wanted to do extra tests. It was too big a risk of exposure, and I couldn’t take that chance. So, I took my money and slumped off into the shadows. Now, I’m a forgotten baseball player, a has-been, a cool little bit of baseball trivia. Honestly, my biggest claim to fame was being the answer to aJeopardyquestion a couple of years ago.”

“That must have been a tough decision, leaving behind the game you loved?”

“Not as tough as leaving you.” I clasped both her hands between mine. “I want to make up for lost time. Speaking of which, have you decided when you’re going back to LA?”

April took a breath and shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s kind of nice being here. It’s quiet, peaceful. I do miss the excitement of my career, but… shit, I don’t know. I don’t want to leave you. We’ve only started rebuilding whatever this is.”

“Okay, I get that. But I don’t want you to give up something you love. Here or there… it doesn’t matter. How about this? Ifyou do decide to move back to LA, I promise I’ll come out there every chance I get. It won’t be ideal, but it’s better than nothing.”

A wistful smile spread on her face, and I saw her shoulders relaxing, like I’d eased some burden. “Sounds like a plan.”

We spent the day together, getting to know each other all over again. It was refreshing to learn about all the things she’d experienced. She was the same April, but different. She’d matured and grown as a woman. As much as I’d hated to let go of her all those years ago, I was happy she’d gotten to experience a life most people dreamed about.

We went to an ice cream parlor downtown after lunch. I looked at her questioningly as we stood at the counter to order. “Chocolate is still your favorite, right?”

“It used to be. My tastes have changed a little. What’s the most exciting thing they have?”

I glanced at the menu. “Um, they have a caramel cinnamon bun flavor?”

“Perfect.”

We took a seat on the bench outside to eat our ice cream. The sun was warm, and April was beautiful. It was truly a glorious day.

“You’ve branched out. I remember a time when you wouldn’t even get sprinkles. Plain chocolate, nothing else. Why did that change?”

April shrugged. “Life. Sometimes you learn things about yourself as you get older.”

“Like, plain chocolate is boring?”

“That, and other things. Sometimes you have to spice up your life. You learn what you like and what makes things exciting.”

“Like? Sounds deeper than ice cream.”

April chewed at her lip, like she was trying to figure out how to say something. When she finally looked up at me, her cheeks were faintly pink. “I’ll show you. Soon.”

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